Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, believes civilisation has only a 50 per cent chance of surviving to 2100 without suffering a man-made catastrophe.

And the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor John Brown, has an equally bleak outlook, fearing a random event from outer space is the most likely cause of our demise.

They will take to the stage to put forward their stark predictions in the discussion “Fire in the Sky: Cosmic Threats to Earth“.

Despite having widely differing views, these two titans of astronomy between them offer global warming, over-population, terrorism, an asteroid falling to earth and a solar blast as potential reasons to panic.

Prof Brown told the Scotsman: “The threats Lord Rees and myself will be talking about are dangerous in different ways.

“Asteroids fall to earth on average 10-100 million years apart. It’s been 65 million years since the last one, so one could happen next week to 60 million years from now.

“The probability in our lifetime is very small, making it low risk, high consequence.

“There’s more risk of a solar blast than an giant asteroid falling, but it would not have such high consequences.”

Lord Rees said: “We can’t rule out by mid-century a global political realignment heading to a stand-off between new superpowers, that could be handled less well or less luckily than the Cuban missile crisis was.

“Moreover, al-Qaeda-style terrorists might some day acquire a nuclear weapon.

“If they did, they would willingly detonate it in a city, killing tens of thousands of along with themselves, and millions would acclaim them as heroes.”

2011-04-14

Seoul (Agenzia Fides) – Human rights trampled and denied freedom of religion, more than 50 thousand Christians in prison camps for their faith, victims of a judicial system based strictly on ideology of the regime: this is the picture of the situation in North Korea, a country, according to the 2011 Report of the Ong “Open Doors“, holds the “black shirt” in terms of respect for freedom of conscience and religion in the world.
The serious situation of fundamental rights is confirmed by Marzuki Darusman, the new UN special observer for Human Rights in North Korea. The recent report by Darusman presented at the UN Council for Human Rights in Geneva, explains that the judiciary system lacks independence compared to the regime. Besides the ordinary courts of judicial power, there exists a “parallel justice system” in the country that does not respect any of the procedural guarantees for the accused, which is needed to exercise more control over citizens.
The “parallel justice system” – says the report – is composed of a series of measures and bodies that can judge the behaviour of a person: the “Law on Control of National Security” and the “Judgement Committee of the Companions,” a sort of “folk trial” governed by a purely ideological perspective, the “Lead Committee for life in the socialist legality” which carries out inspections at various levels and decides on the different types of punishment for social and economic crimes; the “Security Committee ” for the trial of punishing North Korean citizens.
All Koreans or foreigners who fall into the verdicts of these trials, are sent to prison camps where detainees are regularly subjected to torture and cruel and inhuman treatment. The political dissidents and their families, often held for life, suffer hunger and forced labor. Among them are the prisoners of conscience and religion and, according to “Open Doors”, there are over 50 thousand Christians. Among the detention centers known there is “Gwanliso” (work camp for prisoners of conscience), the “Gyohwaso” (work camp for prisoners of long-term), the “Jipgyulso” (simple prison), the “Rodongdanryundae “(prison labor).Freedom of religion in North Korea is totally denied, as well as of conscience, opinion, religion, peaceful association. According to the testimonies of people who escaped from the country, the regime continues an intense anti-religious propaganda, prohibits religious activities and prosecutes those involved in religious activities, including private activities. The regime states that the “Juche”, the official ideology of the state, is the only system of thought and belief allowed in North Korea. Despite the difficult situation, it is estimated that the Christians in Korea are currently about 400 thousand (2% of the population) who, in secret, keep in their hearts the burning flame of faith. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 04/14/2011)

Originally posted on Modern Astronomy:Pluto swings about her largest moon in a delicate gravity dance that is not unlike a space ballet of sorts. Charon’s size creates a gravity tug that causes the large moon to pull at Pluto, creating an almost “binary-twin” type of mutual push-pull-spin. Naturally us space geeks have been fascinated…

Originally posted on Modern Astronomy:You knew it was going to be stellar. One NASA scientist has already made reference to the “incoming waterfall of data” which would be following yesterday’s historic #Plutoflyby by New Horizons. The photo below, courtesy of The New York Times, reveals a close-up of some of Pluto’s fantastic geologic features.…

Originally posted on Modern Astronomy:It seems like it has taken FOREVER! :-) !! But finally, earlier this morning, New Horizons began her closest approach to Pluto. It will take on average more than 5 hours for her photos and other observations to arrive back on earth, where billions of fascinated people around the world…

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